Assessing Environmental Fragility in a Mining Area for Specific Spatial Planning Purposes
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2019, 27(2)27(3): 169–182 MORAVIAN GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS MORAVIAN MORAVIAN GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS Fig. 3. Members of the International Advisory Board of the Fig. 4. The Löw-Beer Villa in Brno, a place of the award MGR journal in front of the Institute of Geonics ceremony Institute of Geonics, The Czech Academy of Sciences journal homepage: http://www.geonika.cz/mgr.html Fig. 5. Professor Eva Zažímalová, president of the Czech Fig. 6. Professor Bryn Greer-Wootten has his speech during Academy of Sciences, presents Professor Bryn Greer-Wootten the award ceremony doi: 10.2478/mgr-2019-0013 with the honorary medal Illustrations related to the paper by R. Blaheta et al. (photo: T. Krejčí, E. Nováková (2×), Z. Říha) Assessing environmental fragility in a mining area for specific spatial planning purposes Radu-Matei COCHECI a, Ioan IANOª b *, Cătălin Niculae SÂRBU a, Anthony SORENSEN c, Irina SAGHIN d, George SECĂREANU e Abstract Environmental fragility in a mining area is evaluated both in terms of its biophysical (natural) and socio- economic components and their anthropogenic interactions. We identified multiple criteria and indicators for this task, but then reduced these according to responses given by 60 experts in domains related to spatial planning. We used the selected criteria and indicators to develop environment fragility indices for each territorial administrative unit (LAU2) in Gorj County in south-western Romania. The resulting indices reveal quite large spatial variations in fragility and evidence that highly fragile human and physical environments are to some extent intertwined. In this respect, such environmental components as climate, soils, ecosystems, natural hazards and economic issues provide constraints on human activities, whilst humans themselves can, without sufficient care, increase fragility and adversely affect the quality of living environments for present and future generations. We also explore how such estimates of natural and anthropogenic fragility might enable better specific planning for local and regional development that aims to ameliorate both environmental and human adversity in an integrated way. Keywords: fragility index, mining area, specific spatial planning, Gorj County, Romania Article history: Received 3 January 2019, Accepted 25 June 2019, Published 30 September 2019 1. Introduction such basic concepts as territorial vulnerability and resilience The numerous interactions between human society (Graziano and Rizzi, 2016). Moreover, there is an emergent and its bio-physical environment tend to become more preoccupation with defining environmental fragility in complicated over time (Harden et al., 2014). This is different territorial systems. For example, a recent study partially due to such factors as increasing population, an by Macedo et al. (2018) defines fragility as an “interaction accelerating myriad of technological advances, and the between vulnerability and anthropogenic influences” shifting dynamics of various economic activities. (p. 1268) and develops an environmental fragility index Mining activities in particular tend to affect adversely, applied specifically to the neotropical savannah biome. both directly and indirectly, many human settlements and In this study we attempt to define a complex fragility require careful territorial planning. Indeed, some mining index which incorporates the major component fragilities activities are so harmful that the “environmental risks of territorial systems. This index is subsequently applied incline to migrate out of the area” (Vojvodíková, 2005, p. 51). to a Romanian region that is environmentally damaged by In such territorial systems, it is very important to assess mining activities, and discusses how better planning systems their environmental fragility before defining any specific can help remediate conditions. features of territorial planning. We focus, in particular, on Romania’s Gorj County, where Increasingly, environmental studies demonstrate a clear the socialist Ceauºescu regime greatly increased energy focus on territorial risks, often involving trade-offs between production based on lignite to expand industrial production. a ”Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest, Romania b Interdisciplinary Center of Advanced Research on Territorial Dynamics, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania (*corresponding author: I. Ianos, e-mail: [email protected]) c University of New England, Armidale, Australia d “Ovidius” University of Constanta, Constanta, Romania e Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania 169 MORAVIAN GEOGRAPHICAL REPORTS 2019, 27(3):2019, 169–182 27(2) The post-socialist dynamics of all East-European countries taking into account the new resources needed by existing have witnessed strong de-industrialisation processes communities. This task is often made both complex and involving the closure of many large enterprises, including difficult because of clashes between differing perspectives mining areas activities, the majority of which can be and strategies across many different spatial scales: global, categorised as brownfield sites (Kunc et al., 2014). Romanian national, regional and local (Drummond et al., 2015). For investors find such regions unattractive, especially on local and sub-regional authorities to take the best planning account of their environmental problems. decisions in the case of fragile environments, including those Taking into account the multiple consequences of de- damaged by mining activities, it is also very important to industrialisation processes (Ianoº, 2016) and the lack of clear acknowledge the interactions between biotic and abiotic responsibilities for land rehabilitation, the affected human components, between the terrestrial and aquatic ones settlements need careful spatial planning (Cocheci, 2016) to (Omernik and Griffith, 2014), and between the internal and enhance their revival prospects. Thus our approach focuses external environments of territorial systems. on evaluating the form and origin of local environmental Political systems, which have until recently focused mainly fragility and how it might be managed. This task also on macro-level strategies, should also, according to Lange engaged people working on spatial planning and research Salvia et al. (2019) look at the regional and local levels. And activities for local and regional administrations, all of whom this task is likely to involve developing strategies to enable have important environmental and planning knowledge on local and economically specialised communities to adapt which we have drawn. to new conditions. The issue of likely irreversible climate change, however, is likely to complicate the management of 2. Theoretical background fragile environments, requiring new strategies to allocate financial, social, economic, cultural and other resources to Recent decades have witnessed many studies on both effectively improve both environmental quality and place local and global environmental harms generated by such prosperity in mining areas (Carvalho, 2017). processes as climate change, rapid urbanisation, economic Some of the most adversely affected local communities globalisation, and enhanced transport or communication in terms of environmental quality may well be those technologies. The resulting environmental degradation where national strategies for energy development require decreases long-term sustainability and contributes to acceptance of drastic changes in land use. Communities deepening spatial disparities in overall environmental quality depending on surface and underground mining or oil (Salvati and Zitti, 2007). Consequently, land remediation exploitation may have witnessed a temporary rise in strategies adopted by human communities to restore valued economic well-being (Cocheci et al., 2015), but also ecosystems (Song et al., 2018) may need to vary from place to often with strongly negative impacts on environmental place, a task that may become difficult where human activity quality (Zobrist et al., 2009; Wasylycia-Leis et al., 2014). has exceeded the environment’s resilience capacity. Landscape reconstruction and ecological renewal require Fragility, which may be regarded as the inverse of stability, the transformation of degraded environments into high is an inherent characteristic of any ecosystem, regardless of quality ones by improving ecological amenities, while the amount of disturbance to which it is exposed (Nilsson simultaneously seeking to ensure sustainable development and Grelsson, 1995). Thus, the biophysical environment acts in local communities (Zhang et al., 2011). as a potential constraint on human activities and vice versa, The old 'man/nature' unity paradigm has been reinforced in introducing an element of environmental determinism into the last fifteen years, although many years ago such analysts our arguments (Robinson, 2004). In ecology, for example, as Commoner (1971), and Bonnefous (1970) realised its the concept of limitative factors (Odum et al., 1971) states complexity. This approach involves the morality and ethics that the presence and success of organisms depends on of the space and place (Ianoº et al., 2010) and represents several different conditions and any condition which an important component in looking for a new paradigm surpasses a tolerance limit will be considered a limitative concerning human-nature relations. Humans continuously factor. As a result, certain environmental conditions seek